Hecht helps Sabres eliminate Rangers in six games

May 6, 2007 - 10:43 PM

NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Jochen Hecht rediscovered his scoring
touch in time to send the New York Rangers home for the summer.

Hecht tallied twice and Daniel Briere had three assists as the
Buffalo Sabres advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the
second straight season with a 5-4 victory over the New York
Rangers in Game Six on Sunday.

Chris Drury also continued his playoff success with a goal and
an assist for the top-seeded Sabres, who will meet the
fourth-seeded Ottawa Senators for the right to play for the
Stanley Cup. Buffalo beat Ottawa in the conference semis
last season.

"It was a big relief in the first round and another big relief
there in the second round," Briere said. "Every round the goal
is to move forward."

The President's Trophy winners during the regular season when
they led the league with 308 goals, the Sabres had managed just
four goals in the last three games against Rangers netminder
Henrik Lundqvist.

Hecht had even been in bigger scoring drought, registering just
one assists in his previous 10 postseason games. He had not
scored in 16 games overall dating to March 28 against New
Jersey.

"I was frustrated. But tonight I was over that point where I
was frustrated and I was going out there and trying to play
good, creating chances," Hecht said. "I didn't think about it
tonight and maybe that's the reason why it finally went in."

But Hecht scored once during a four-goal uprising in the second
and again in the third as the Sabres again looked like the
high-flying team they were during the regular season.

"We didn't have a lot of luck our previous games," Sabres coach
Lindy Ruff said. "You think you're going to catch a break
sooner or later. I don't think anybody would have predicted
there would have been nine goals in this game."

Hecht rifled a high wrist shot past Lundqvist from the edge of
the right faceoff circle at 7:41 of the second period off a
3-on-2, giving the Sabres a 3-2 lead.

"He's so good at taking the bottom part of the net away and we
finally tonight got the shots up and they went in," Hecht said.

"Everybody's happy for him. It's been a tough playoffs for him
so far in the offensive department," Briere said. "You know
what he's always going to give you defensively, he doesn't make
too many mistakes. He's very good going to the boards and he's
good at killing penalties. But the puck didn't want to go in
for him. It's good to see. He's well-liked in the room and the
guys were excited for him."

Drury, who scored perhaps the Sabres' biggest goal of the season
in Game Five when he tallied with eight seconds left in
regulation to send the game into overtime, found the back of the
net off a scramble in front at 11:15 of the middle session for
a 4-2 advantage. It was his 42nd career playoff goal.

"We just wanted to keep getting shots," Drury said. "If we got
a good 30 to 35 shots, we liked our chances. In the first
period, he made some great saves. We knew if we kept up like
that we would get our breaks."

Briere said the Sabres kept it simple in their approach to solve
Lundqvist.

"The only thing we told ourselves that we could do is to keep throwing
pucks at the net," Briere said. " Obviously the plan from Game One
was to try and shoot high on (Lundqvist). We were hoping at some
point that the puck was going to find the back of the net.

"It did for both teams and I thought it was just for us a matter
of trying to fight hard to keep getting pucks at the net, even
though we were really frustrated because the puck wasn't finding
the back of the net."

Lundqvist finished with 24 saves in his worst game of the
series.

"It is tough to realize the season is over," the Swedish
netminder said. "It was a weird game today. The puck bounced
all over the place. Three of their goals were deflections. Two
were from our guys and one was from them. Obviously the loss
in game five was huge for this series. We still felt good
coming into this game and I think we played well but we just
came up short."

After superstar Jaromir Jagr scored 5:08 into the third period
to pull the Rangers within 4-3, Hecht redirected a shot past
Lundqvist at 14:50 to restore a two-goal advantage.

Michael Nylander scored his second goal of the game, a
power-play tally with 2:51 remaining that pulled the Rangers
within 5-4.

The sixth-seeded Rangers pressured in the waning moments but
were unable to get the equalizer against Ryan Miller, who
finished with 32 saves.

"It was odd man rushes (that cost us the series)," Jagr said.
"We said that all series long. We just can't give it to them.
You have to be careful. We didn't lose it, we just gave it to
them. They are a great team but they aren't better."

Nylander also opened the scoring with his first goal of the
series with 2:50 left in the opening period, when he beat Miller
with a shot from the bottom of the right circle.

Dmitri Kalinin and Jason Pominville scored in the first 2:53 of
the second period, giving the Sabres a 2-1 lead.

Defenseman Paul Mara scored the first of three power-play goals
for the Rangers at 4:40 of the middle session, tying the game at
2-2.

"It is a tough way to lose. It is a sour taste in your mouth,"
Nylander said.